Vietnamese media reported on Thursday that it would reopen civil aviation flights from Ho Chi Minh to Hanoi and six other cities outside the country, including Phnom Penh.

Vietnam Civil Aviation Administration director Dinh Viet Thang said the Ministry of Transport and other relevant agencies would forward the plan to the National Committee for Covid-19 control and prevention.

It will request flight connections to China’s Guangzhou, South Korea’s Seoul, Japan’s Tokyo, Taiwan, and Lao’s Vientiane apart from Phnom Penh.

Flights will restart on September 15. All passengers have to be kept in quarantine after they arrive in Vietnam. Only one flight per week is scheduled for Phnom Penh and Vientiane.

The media said passengers wanting to fly to Vietnam must have been in one of the six cities for at least 30 days before boarding a plane bound for Vietnam. Passengers who transfer through the six cities from other destinations will not be allowed to enter the country.

State Secretariat of Civil Aviation (SSCA) spokesman Sin Chansereyvutha said Cambodia has yet to be officially informed of the renewed flights.

He said the news won’t affect Cambodian airlines much because planes have already been flying back and forth between the two countries.

Cambodia has stopped inbound flights from three countries – the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia because Covid-19-positive passengers had arrived from there.

Since shutting down flights from the three countries, Cambodia has recorded only one imported case of Covid-19 since August 15.

The Kingdom has recorded 274 Covid-19 patients in total. Of the number, 271 have been discharged from hospitals.